


Twin of Spirit

by TheColorBlue



Category: Legend of Zelda
Genre: Gen, Multiplicity/Plurality, on being brothers, on looking after your own, on using intuition
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-03
Updated: 2012-01-03
Packaged: 2017-10-28 20:38:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/311965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheColorBlue/pseuds/TheColorBlue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Link and Spirit had been together always, it felt like, but Link discovered Spirit, really, when he discovered Spirit’s distaste for cuccos. Link had been five. Spirit had been, and still was, of an indeterminate age between seventeen and twenty-five.</i></p><p>[Note: Written as part of a game that started designing itself in my head - <i>Legend of Zelda: Twin Spirits.</i> Like its predecessors, LoZ:TS has an independent storyline, and individual art style, gameplay, etc., but uses many familiar names and references to past games. A "supplemental game pamphlet" with some notes on logistics is included after the fic].</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Twin of Spirit

Link and Spirit had been together always, it felt like, but Link discovered Spirit, really, when he discovered Spirit’s distaste for cuccos. Link had been five. Spirit had been, and still was, of an indeterminate age between seventeen and twenty-five, perhaps, and Link had felt something like the presence of an adult in his mind, crouched in the back and having _feelings_ about the cucco pecking around in the pumpkin patch, like they had happened upon evil incarnate.

Cuccos are vicious bastards, Spirit would always say, when Link was old enough to hear words like “bastard” without Spirit sidling around in a guilty way after letting something like that slip out. _You poke one of them the wrong way, the whole lot of them descend on you like the winds of Hell_. So it was always Link who had to go out by himself to fetch their eggs for breakfast.

Spirit would always make sarcastic remarks in the background as Link crawled around in the yard, searching in all the likely hiding places where a cucco might lay her eggs. Link didn’t mind. At least Spirit was company.

\--

Mama was so proud when they found out that Link and Spirit were two in the same body.

“It means that you both will do great things in life,” Mama said.

 _Maybe,_ Spirit would say to Link in private. He would use the body to curl up in the shade of the back wall of the house, enjoying a bottle of milk and a view of the vegetable garden, of the village as you looked down the slope of the hill. _Or maybe I’m just here to be lazy and enjoy myself._

At present, there was only one other “twin spirit,” in the village, seeing as how Fyn and Viola had gone to Hyrule’s Castle Town to come into their fates as musicians. That was what Viola had intuited for Fyn: the ability to read and play music of the old ages. On the other hand, Jun and Cicada had a far simpler life planned for themselves. Cicada had intuited the skills of handling cattle. The two of them sold some of the best milk in all of Hyrule.

“There is so much knowledge lost from the old ages of Hyrule,” Mama would say to them over supper. Her expression was both happy and faraway, dreaming. “Even if it seems like only a little thing that Spirit comes upon by intuition, like the memory of a song of our ancestors, or the way to plant a flower so that it will flourish—every piece of knowledge is so precious.

Spirit wouldn't say anything. He'd slow down a little in the way that he was shoveling down pumpkin soup—to be more polite with his supper manners, maybe, but he'd look down into his bowl, and he wouldn't say anything.

Sometimes Link wondered if Spirit was afraid that someday he’d only disappoint their mother. Link never said so, wanting to look out for Spirit, but the feeling was there all the same.

\--

Spirit loved their mother. Link loved their mother too, but Spirit would sometimes walk around in strange moods like he wanted to cry after something their mother had said to them in a fond way, or after seeing her doing something simple like cooking, or putting the wash out to dry in the sun. Spirit didn’t know. He said, _I think I must have been very lonely, once._ Which didn’t explain anything, Link thought, but it wasn’t something Spirit could really express, and it wasn’t something that Link could really ask about.

\--

Spirit was somewhere between seventeen and twenty-five. Link was only sixteen. He wondered sometimes, what it would be like to finally catch up with Spirit in age, approximately, but Spirit always assured Link that he’d _always treat Link like his baby brother, don’t you worry about that_.

It was good thing they shared the same body, because otherwise this would have probably been the part wherein Spirit squeezed both Link's cheeks, or ruffled his hair into a haystack, just to show a point.

On their sixteenth birthday, they had made a special offering at the village’s shrine to the goddesses, as was the custom for all who were born twin of spirit. Link had bowed before the emblems of the goddesses, breathing in the scent of the shrine incense, and he had thought, he wasn’t worried that Spirit hadn’t shown any sign of _intuiting_ anything special yet, he was just glad of having Spirit as his brother, and he was glad to be Spirit’s brother. Spirit sometimes acted so peculiar, _I must have been very lonely, once_ and sitting out and watching the sun rise over the village in the mornings after they had gotten up for the day. If Spirit intuited anything special, they might have to leave the village. It might be the way that Fyn and Viola had to leave for Castle Town, and Link…well, Link had mixed feelings. He was curious about the world outside their village. He was curious about a lot of things. There was a part of him that had that strange thirst, with the idea of _going out into the world and finding your fortune_. But he also wanted to look out for Spirit, who was strange and complicated and unfathomable, who was older than him and always said, in the secret place of their mind, that he’d look out for Link as an older brother would, but sometimes Link thought, _he was looking out for Spirit_ , only Spirit didn’t know it.

Spirit loved horses. He loved their horse Epona, who came to them with the whistle of a song. He loved milk. He loved lying out in the grass on a quiet afternoon when all of their work was done, and when Link watched him sleep, it was like watching a weary soul drink in the summertime.

These were the sorts of things Link didn’t tell his mother, and he didn’t tell Spirit. He was sixteen, and Spirit was somewhere between seventeen and twenty-five, but really sometimes he seemed older than that. He seemed old like the stone of their village shrines, and Link didn’t know what that would mean for the both of them. He did not know what would become of them , with one soul so old, and his own soul feeling so young, thirsting to go out into the strange and mysterious lands beyond their village. He had heard of a Castle Town that was rich and vibrant and full of shining buildings with walls that towered white all around you. He had heard of the domain of the Zora, the people with skin silvery like fish and who could breathe underwater. He had heard of the mountains of the Gorons, the people who ate rocks like steak for their breakfasts, lunches, and suppers.

He wanted to go see it all. But he did not know if he could bring Spirit with him, and so he could not go, he told himself, he told himself, he told himself.

\--

A month after their sixteenth birthday, a traveler passing through mentions of trouble in Hyrule’s capital, of a strange and dark foreigner come to Zelda’s court, and of the appearance of monsters in the countryside.

A month after their sixteenth birthday, Link and Spirit come upon a strange child, clothed all in green and having green hair and wearing a mask made out of leaves. They follow her into the Lost Woods behind the goddess shrine, the woods no villager dares to enter, and they are led to a long-forgotten forest temple. And it does not matter if Link is too young, or Spirit is too old and battle-weary, their path into the wider world is predestined, and what Spirit _intuits_ in that forest temple is the feel of their sword in their hands, the weight and balance of the metal, and the way to wield it so that their foe is cleaved cleanly in twain.


	2. Supplemental Game Pamphlet

Legend of Zelda: Twin Spirits

The premise of the game is that at a future point in the game timeline, there is an era wherein much of the history, arts, and knowledge of old Hyrule are lost to the people. Over the past few generations or so, people have been born with multiple spirits inhabiting the same body, typically two: for the purposes of ease of identification, one of the two is called a "new soul” or “companion soul,” usually identifying more strongly with the current physical body; the second is a “guardian soul,” usually identifying with a different visual appearance. It is believed that these guardian souls presently exist as keys to the lost knowledge of Hyrule; however, it is difficult to come to any real conclusions about this, as most Guardians do not have access to a complete knowledge of their origins or identities. Instead, they seem to intuitively draw forth old knowledge when presented with outside cues or pertinent situations; they can then teach this knowledge to their companion souls. Guardians can also control the body, like their companions—but sometimes they may have difficulties “embodying” the physical vessel because of disconnect between their physical-identifications and the actual physical bodies.

The graphics of the game are cell-shaded, like Wind Waker, but in a different, more elegant style. Perhaps something like a cross between Wind Waker and the style of of the Wii U Zelda tech demo, plus Okami. The cell-shaded, simple look is specifically chosen to allow flexibility in movement and facial expression animation.

In the game, we are presented with Link and his Guardian, Spirit. Spirit is occasionally given a visual manifestation of a bubbly, floating ball of light that stays close to Link, and when called upon the background screen will darken and we are presented with a silvery-white spirit.

Individuals with Guardians have a characteristic ball of light accompanying them, but eye contact and verbal address is always made to the physical body; the ball of light is simply a selectable object for speaking to the Guardian rather than the Companion. Other dual spirits may include descendents of Zelda, Impa, and Malon. Assorted other characters will be dual spirits whose Guardians do not directly originate from previous in-game characters.

When inhabiting the body, Link and Spirit have different body language, physical mannerisms, and variations on fighting style. Their voice clips have a slightly different sound. The accompanying ball of light changes color depending on who is controlling the body. Mild environment lighting effects changes may come into play.

In one of the early training sequences, when Link first accesses a sword, Spirit finds himself _recalling old memories of using a sword… This body feels a bit strange though…._

After a few clumsy swipes with the sword, Spirit shakes his head, and then says to Link: _Perhaps I will simply coach you through this…_ Followed by the usual slightly-dramatic training sequence, complete with Spirit making yelling noises of abuse at Link if the player doesn’t follow the instructions correctly.

The player may switch between Link and Spirit---Link will be used primarily for sword-fighting and use of most items etc., but certain items and magic-based abilities can only be used as Spirit. In dungeons, and while equipping the Guardian Racquet, Spirit can also be thrown-projected to scout areas and fulfill certain objectives. Certain puzzles may only be completed by Spirit inhabiting the body. Otherwise, the use of the character Link advances as per the previous games. On the whole, Spirit fulfills other misc. functions that Navi or Fi might have fulfilled.

A secret, optional side-quest unlocks the use of Wolf, a second Guardian. Use of Wolf is only allowed in boss fights, and can be used to physically transform the player into a shadow-beast-wolf. Use of Wolf's beast form also expends the magic bar.


End file.
